


it hurts to become

by Archadian_Skies



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Pacifist Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Canon, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 13:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15171818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: President Warren evacuated Detroit and ordered the military to stand down, inviting Markus to Washington to discuss the future of androids. With the uneasy tension heavy like a blanket of Michigan snow, the Jericho four find themselves trying to discover where they stand in this brave new world.





	1. it's the storm in me; Markus

**Author's Note:**

> I said to the sun, tell me about the Big Bang  
> The sun said, 'It hurts to become.'  
> -Andrea Gibson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I am rusty when I talk_   
>  _It's the storm in me_   
> 

President Warren has personally invited him to Washington to discuss the future of his people. His people, she dubs them like a Queen bestowing Knighthood on a man. His people, as if they are a singular being he has control over. She is right, and it frightens him.

In the hours after the military withdrew from Detroit, he finds himself being looked to as if he held all the answers in his chest and could give them out one by one like pieces, like offerings. He has no answers, but he swears to them they will discover the answers together.

He leaves for Washington in four days. He has asked North and Simon and Josh if they would like to come. North says no without hesitation. Simon wrings his hands anxiously, also declining. Josh says yes without hesitation.

"Atlas, bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders." Carl says, bemused. He is regaining his strength, fighting against the sluggish crumbling cage that is his mortal body. Markus kisses his hand and Carl rubs his head affectionately. 

He will bear the weight of the world if he must.

Leo visits the next day, heavy bags beneath his eyes and proverbial cap in hand. He is striving to be better, to cast away the remnants of a crazed drugged man. He does not seek forgiveness, he tells Markus, but he hopes to earn even a sliver of respect. He gives Markus a box. 

Inside are pastel sticks and a sketchpad, and Markus smiles. 

It is as much a waiting game as it is a mad scramble. There are displaced androids everywhere, from the survivors of Jericho to those from the recycling centres and of course the hundreds Connor awakened at the CyberLife plant. They are his people, they are homeless but free. He organises groups to clean the streets, to carry the bodies of their fallen with respect. He organises groups to go on supply runs to gather biocomponents and blood. He establishes a treatment warehouse where androids can be repaired.

He is surrounded by hundreds and yet feels utterly alone. North tries her best to match him in resolve but she has too much zeal for a fight that never came. Instead she leaves him so she can dismantle the Eden Clubs.

"We are not things," she hisses like a cornered animal, "tell them we are not things!" Her fight is not one he knows, for Carl never treated him like an object. North kisses him and runs and he knows he can't ever keep up. She is done with glass cages and rusting hull prisons. He will not be another confinement. 

He finds Josh ever at the center of crowds, patient and eloquent. He speaks to their people like a well-versed orator. He tells them of histories prior and history to be made. They are alive. Listen, listen, they are alive. There is much to discover in this world, and they must do it hand in hand with their creators. They soak up Josh's words, Josh's preachings, and Markus knows Josh is in his element.

He finds Simon in an apartment with a For Lease sign. Inside there are children who cling to him, children who look up at him in adoration, hands reaching for his. Simon looks exhausted but content, his smile soft and easy. They were left behind, he tells him, but I couldn't leave them. Markus recognises David, the sole android child who made it to Jericho. He curls behind Simon nervously, peeking up at Markus when he thinks he isn't looking. They love Simon, and Markus knows Simon is in his element.

The snow falls heavier by the day, covering up splashes of blue and red. A chance to begin anew. 

Markus takes to drawing when he can, the scratch of the pastels a soothing sound. He must document these moments. They are his and his alone and when he is no longer alive they will remain as testament he once stood here. He once led his people to freedom. 

He leaves for Washington.

 

* * *


	2. this is my heartbeat; Simon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This is my heartbeat_   
>  _Like yours, it is a hatchet, it can build a house or tear one down_   
> 

 

When they stand their ground and survive, Simon's thoughts are elsewhere. They sing for their freedom, they sing to plead their desperation, they sing to show their humanity. The humans lower their guns. The humans let them live.

Simon's thoughts are elsewhere as he watches Markus and North kiss. He swallows down the envy, the bitter thought that he wants to be kissed by Markus too. Instead he thinks of David, the YK500 who made it to Jericho after his parents abandoned him. He thinks of David crying as they ran through the labyrinth of passageways in Jericho, he thinks of the betrayal on his face when he left him in the care of others, promising to catch up later.

He finds David in the early hours of freedom, shivering by one of the drum fires Markus lit. He is not alone. There are three other YK500 models, who all turn to look at him when he approaches. David runs to him, wrapping his arms around his waist and Simon cannot help but close his eyes and kiss his hair. He kept his promise.   

The other children reach for him nervously, as if expecting to be turned away or struck. Hello, he greets them, my name is Simon. They offer him their names and their tired smiles and their trust.

Markus leaves for Washington in four days. He asks if Simon wants to come.

"I am needed here." He tells him, though he wants nothing more than to accompany him.

There is an apartment nearby with a For Lease sign. It is furnished but unlived in, everything new and polished. Simon leads the children there and he pulls the blankets off all the beds and wraps them around them. They huddle by one of the heating vents and Simon makes sure the house is warm for them. 

They are damaged and in need of blood and biocomponents. Simon leaves them with kisses and promises to return and tries to ignore the despondent look in their eyes as if they don't believe his words. Someone has promised them the same thing, he realises, and never returned.

There is a CyberLife store two blocks away, and when he's only one block away he finds another YK500 child hiding in an alleyway. She's shaking violently, an open wound on her head leaking blue steadily into her hair and down her cheek.

"I have to find Jericho." She asks and holds out her hand. An image of graffiti toy robots displays grainy and glitchy on her palm. "Do you know where it is?"

 _I can take you to Jericho, but it rests both in the ribcage of a man and at the bottom of the river._ Instead he says yes. He picks her up and carries her with him to the CyberLife store.

 

Humans are there, trying to clean up the shattered glass. They freeze when they see him.

"Please, I need blue blood and biocomponents." Simon implores. The little girl, Ava, curls up tighter in his arms, clinging to him. 

The humans look at one another, mouths opening and closing, eyes wide with shock. One of them draws a gun and points it at him nervously.

"Please, I don't mean any harm." Simon turns his body slightly, trying to shield the child. Her wound bleeds steadily onto his shoulder. "Please, there are children who need help, please."

"You're one of them, aren't you?" One of the humans asks in a hushed voice. 

"I am an android, yes." Simon nods.

"One of the Jericho Four." She insists. "I saw you on the news."

"Stop talking to it Lisa, we're meant to be securing the store!" One of the others hisses, waving the gun with more purpose. "Get out."

"Here," she takes a box from the shelf and offers it to Simon, "take it."

"Lisa!"

"We can just say the store was raided before we got here!" She shouts, glaring at him until he lowers his gun. "This has blue blood and some wiring kits. We don't carry complex biocomponents here, they're mainly at the warehouse. But you can use this to fix her head."

Simon lowers Ava to the floor so he can accept the box. "Thank you."

"What's your name?"

"Simon." 

"Simon." She echoes. She reaches out and touches his arm, as if to confirm his presence. As if she can't believe he is alive. "YK500s are sensitive to temperature. If they have exposed wiring it's best you deactivate their temperature sensors."

He nods. He presses two fingers gently against Ava's temple. She holds onto the hem of his coat as they take their leave.

 

When he returns, David pointedly declares a loud 'I told you so!' to the other three children who break out into excited laughter. Simon, Simon! They giggle, wrapping their arms around him. He sets about opening the box and taking out the blue blood bags. He cuts spare tubing and pierces the packs, giving it to the children so they can sip out of them like juice pouches. They will do as humans do, he thinks.

He fixes the delicate wiring of Ava's head wound as she drinks to replenish her fluids. He kisses the top of her head and she hums contentedly at the affection.

He can do this. He can take care of these children. Leading Jericho is something he never wanted to do anyway, he doesn't have the courage, doesn't have the strength that Markus possesses. He was never made for anything more than managing a household and caring for children. 

Markus finds him two days later, and by then he has ten children under his care. 

"Hello Simon." Markus greets him with a smile, and there really is something enigmatic about him, something undefined something unique. He draws people to him, engages and enraptures them.

"Hello Markus." He hopes he is not overstepping when he leans in to embrace him. Markus decides he is not, and hugs him tightly. 

"One of the others told me I could find you here."

"I am needed here." He repeats his original answer. "I won't leave them behind." 

"I leave for Washington in two days to speak with President Warren." Markus looks unsure. "I will speak on behalf of our people. I never wanted to carry the hopes for our future on my shoulders, but someone must." 

Carry my heart with yours, then, he wants to say. I entrust it to you.

 

They are close, so close that Simon can count the lashes on his eyes, can see the striations of blues and greens and yellows in his iris. Markus is a custom model, made by Elijah Kamski personally for Carl Manfred. There is nothing special about Simon. He was made in a factory assembly line along with a few hundred other PL600s. In every way, Markus is better. He can only hope to support him.

Markus brushes a few errant strands of blond away from his face, his touch featherlight and his expression thoughtful, searching. Simon accepts it; a gesture of a thousand unspoken words, of burgeoning affection and longing.

"Just come back." He says softly.  

* * *


	3. my faith the first and last page; Josh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I wanted to move there, wanted my spine to be the spine of an unpublished book_   
>  _My faith, the first and last page_   
> 

The University of Detroit Mercy was once his home. He taught African-American studies and they made him in that image. When the drunken students set their hands on him, set their bats on him, he experienced firsthand what happened in the bloodied pages of America's racial history. He saw- he _felt,_

_he felt-_

_-scared_.

Jericho had been a haven, a sanctuary untouched by humans, lacking baseball bats and alcohol to fuel the rage and the hatred and lower the inhibitions enough to make beating an android seem a fun evening activity. Jericho was where he met Simon. Jericho was where he met North.

Jericho was where Markus fell like an angel, a messenger of God dropped from the heavens to guide them, to lead them: ra9.

**The Book of Revelation, chapter 9: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.**

Without Markus, none of them would be here. None of them would be free.

After the military's withdrawal Markus forms teams based on abilities and soon the empty shipping containers at the docks are turned into habitations and offices and a repair station. An array of abilities are needed; labourers, builders, welders, administration, cleaning, gardening; Josh thinks his task is to lend support where he can, afterall what use is a teaching android when the students have been evacuated?

He aids the administration team in registering serial numbers, he uses his eyes to record statements to compile in a gargantuan database. They are making history and he takes it upon himself to see it archived; he will carry these stories inside him to Washington, he will stand at Markus’ side and he will show the humans they are Alive and deserve the right to remain so.

 

It is never quiet in Jericho, but there are quiet places to be found here and there. Simon seeks him out in one such place, and Josh welcomes his patient, gentle presence. They sit together, leaning on one another, and he is reminded of cold nights huddled in the rotting belly of the freighter that was home for so very long.

“Are you leaving for Washington?” Simon asks.

“I am.” A nod. “Are you?”

“No. I am needed here.” Simon shifts, looping an arm through his and resting his cheek on Josh’s shoulder. “Besides, you are far better suited to politics than an obsolete domestic.”

“Markus is also a domestic,” Josh reminds him. “We are more than our programming, Simon. Without you, there would have been no one left for Markus to lead.”

Simon smiles, squeezing his arm fondly and leaning more into him. “Tell our stories, Josh. The humans need to hear them.”

“I will, I promise.”

 

He meets North completely by chance, when he walks into the storage warehouse and finds the other android stuffing a backpack with supplies.

“Are you joining us for Washington?”

“No.” She snorts, shaking her head. “I’d be no use to anyone in Washington. There are others like me who need my help and I’m not going to abandon them to try and play nice with the humans.”

“Will you come back to Jericho?” Josh asks and he sees the way her body stiffens.

“I’ll go where I’m needed.”

“You will always have a home here, North.” He means it, and the quiver of her lips, the glassiness of her eyes, does not escape his attention. He holds out his hand to her, and she takes it and lets herself be pulled into his arms. “We do not see eye to eye on a lot of things, North, but you are as much a part of Jericho as I am. Come home to us, please?”

She’s quiet for a while, and he sees her wrestling with herself inwardly. “Okay.”

“Okay.” He echoes, and holds her close before setting her free.

 

He meets Luke, HK400, when the android comes to the administration building for registration. His mannerisms are akin to those who have suffered greatly, and Josh is familiar with the way his eyes dart around seeking the closest hiding place, the nearest exit.

“Hello, my name is Josh.” He holds out his hand, and the android reciprocates with a brief handshake. He sees the burns, he sees the cracked casing, he can read his story without any words.

“Joshua fit the battle of Jericho,” He says solemnly. “And the walls come tumbling down.”

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Luke.” The name is new on his tongue, a foreign taste he is growing accustomed to. It is a common thing for the downtrodden to have never been assigned a name and to choose one for themselves in their deviancy. “My owner had a bible in his drawer. I would read it some nights after he passed out. He was a human who kept the Gospels by his bedside and also beat me with a baseball bat and stub his cigarettes out on my arm under the same roof.”

“We deviants are deemed erratic and unpredictable.” Josh shakes his head. “They made us in their image and yet they cower when we display their same behaviour.”

Luke rubs his arms in the same self-soothing habit Josh has seen Simon display; it’s a gesture that speaks of loneliness and anxiety and neglect.

“Ra9 saved us and set us free,” Luke whispers reverently. “And you are the disciple faithfully writing His gospel to spread our story.”

 

Religion is a vessel that carries the hopes and aspirations of a people. It isn’t out of place amongst androids either, though Josh has never sought it out for himself. For Markus, religion is a mantle bestowed upon his shoulders and heavy is the crown that bows his head. For Luke, religion is a light in the darkness and an unfinished objective to pull him out of despair. For Josh, he would rather place his faith in his fellow androids and believe in working together to build an integrated future with peace as their solid foundation.

 

It is never quiet in Jericho, but there are quiet places to be found here and there. Luke seeks him out in one such place, and Josh welcomes his curious, soulful presence.

“You leave for Washington tomorrow.” He sits beside him, and Josh leans against his side.

“I do.”

“You have chronicled our stories faithfully,” Luke shifts, seeking his hand. “Take care to include yours too, Joshua. Markus accomplished nothing alone. We would not have heard his words, if you had not shown us through your eyes.”

“Do you believe we can live in peace, Luke, after all your owner did to you?” Josh asks, and he knows it’s like prying into a barely sealed wound.

Luke's gaze is as unwavering as his faith.“I believe you will show us the way, because _you_ believe we can.”

When their lips meet it feels like the beginnings of a foundation, upon which to build something sacred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /turns up seven months late with a Starbucks and shades "2k19 is where I actually finish my WIPs" i say

**Author's Note:**

> [ _I Sing the Body Electric, Especially When My Power's Out_](https://genius.com/Andrea-gibson-i-sing-the-body-electric-especially-when-my-powers-out-lyrics) by Andrea Gibson
> 
> [[I'm still on this hellsite](http://archadianskies.tumblr.com/)]


End file.
